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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

For his part, Jamz Yaneza, TrendLabs senior anti-virus consultant was surprised at the mobile phone virus scare in the country. "It appears as just that, a scare. Clean up services for mobile phone viruses are still big business in Greenhills (a famous shopping center in San Juan, Manila). It might be a repackaged mobile phone virus"Yaneza told INQ7.net.

He added that there’s possibility this mobile phone virus scare is a hoax.Still, he warned local subscribers to be careful with installing unknown programs in their mobile handsets. "Some of these mobile phone viruses are repackaged as applications," he added."A point of caution: Cabir – one of the popular mobile phone viruses -- is readily available on the Internet. It can always be recompiled and spread by people. But on the other virus known as ‘Commwarriors,’ we have not seen or heard [of] any incidents in the Philippines," the anti-virus consultant said.

TrendlLabs does not have a central repository of reports and incidents of mobile phone virus infections in the Philippines however. In most cases, users with infected phones have the viruses removed or their phones reset in little repair shop.

"They would rather go to Greenhills to have the phone reset. They don't report it. But it's good to hear that some people are now turning off their Bluetooth these days to avoid being infected," Yaneza said.